Staff Profile

I am a specialist of gender in the nineteenth-century French novel, particularly the ways in which these intersect with issues of representation, authorship and Realism.Much of my work has focused on gender in the writing of George Sand, and  I am currently working on two large projects: an edition of George Sand's Elle et Lui for the Champion edition of Sand's Oeuvres complètes, and a monograph on the interactions between literature and sculpture in nineteenth-century French culture, provisionally entitled, Written in Stone. I am currently President of the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes and am a former editor of the Society's journal, Dix-Neuf.

I am a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, where I completed my MA and PhD. During my PhD studies, I spent a year studying at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. I lectured in French at the University of Wales Swansea and Queen's University Belfast before joining Newcastle University as Head of the School of Moderrn Languages. I took up my current role as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Humanities and Social Sciences in September 2018.